DE PALMA @ CANNES, DAY TWO“THIS IS STILL THE PLACE WHERE YOU CAN SEE THE FILMS OF THE GREATEST DIRECTORS IN THE WORLD”Le Soir’s Cannes correspondent Fabienne Bradfer was shocked to find himself sitting next to Brian De Palma at Thursday’s competition screening of François Ozon’s Jeune et jolie, and asked him a few questions before the film started. It was a rainy evening, and Bradfer writes that De Palma was there “incognito, umbrella in his right hand, Yankee cap on his knees.” Eventually, De Palma smiled toward Bradfer, “removed his headphones and muttered that at times like these, he is not eligible for Cannes.”

Bradfer’s blog post continues:

”I nod, trying not to soak with my umbrella. I'm sitting next to one of the greatest American filmmakers. We chat a little, timidly at first. After exchanging a few words on his arrival the day before from the United States, the weather, his refusal to watch movies on an airplane and the irritation of getting up every two seconds to let other spectators pass, he said: ‘What is your name? Mine is Brian,’ and shook my hand. I smiled at him, saying that I know his name is Brian and mine is Fabienne. From there follows a friendly conversation about the ironic pleasure of going to see films at festivals. His average: 5 per day. He tells me: ‘This is still the place where you can see the films of the greatest directors in the world.’ Brian De Palma loves to haunt film festivals. I slip in the name of Hitchcock, his eyes light up. He dedicates his boundless admiration. With mischief in his eyes, he says: ‘And Kim Novak is coming ...’. He can’t find the words. Brian De Palma will be able to relive the great cinematic emotion of his youth: watching Vertigo in a restored version thanks to Cannes Classics."

The picture above from the museum set of Brian De Palma's Passion is one of several that have been posted at Dívány. A big thanks to Marina for finding this gallery!

Meanwhile, something curious is happening with the U.S. release of Passion. First we heard June, then July, and now some tweets and other news are suggesting the date has been moved to August. The tweet below (from Damon Houx, located in Los Angeles) would seem to suggest that Passion will now be released on August 16...

But then a curious thing happened yesterday. The Film Stage tweeted that Passion had been moved to "late August"...

However, the link in the tweet now takes you to an article that begins with the following: "Update: Release date news removed at the request of the distributor." The article then focuses solely on the Daft Punk/De Palma buzz (see post from earlier today), although they did leave in this question at the end of the article: "Are you disappointed that Passion will have to wait a little longer?" (Well, yes, of course.)

DAFT PUNK MET WITH DE PALMA RECENTLYBUT SECRETIVE DUO ARE KEEPING MUM ON WHAT WAS DISCUSSEDAbout a year ago, Paul Williamsrevealed that he was then working on a top-secret project with Daft Punk. Now we have a new Daft Punk album, Random Access Memories, featuring several collaborators, including Paul Williams and Giorgio Moroder, which seems to be the top secret project Williams was talking about (the album officially releases May 21, but is currently streaming on iTunes).

Well, yesterday, quite a buzz was created from a small piece of news that appeared in a Pitchfork cover story on Daft Punk. The helmeted duo, made up of Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, were interviewed by Ryan Dombal, who writes, "At one point during our interview, Bangalter let it slip that he and de Homem-Christo recently had a meeting with [Brian] De Palma to 'discuss some things,' though he declined to divulge any specifics."

Of course, this bit of news takes on a certain significance when combined with the knowledge that Daft Punk are huge fans of De Palma's Phantom Of The Paradise. Back in 2007, they told The Guardian's Alex Rayner that they saw De Palma's film together in the theater more than 20 times. They also noted that their own film, Electroma, and Phantom Of The Paradise both feature "a hero with a black leather outfit and a helmet."

The Playlist's Drew Taylor, Criterion Cast's Joshua Brunsting, and JoBlo's Niki Stephens all posted enthusuastic articles about the juicy tidbit, speculating whether they might be talking about a film project, a music video, or even having De Palma direct some sort of live show. "Maybe they discussed a love for llamas or something," wrote Stephens. Guess we'll just have to wait and see what, if anything, ever comes of it.

One of the songs Paul Williams collaborates on, "Touch", is the centerpiece of Random Access Memories. Regarding that track, here is the last part of Dombal's Pitchfork article:

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But of all the moving parts that make up Random Access Memories, the most head-scratching section to put together was the album's eight-minute centerpiece, "Touch". The kaleidoscopic track stars 72-year-old Paul Williams, who wrote immense hits for the Carpenters, Barbra Streisand, and more in his 70s heyday, before descending into drug and alcohol abuse in the 80s, and then recovering in the 90s. Daft Punk were obsessed with Williams from an early age, largely due to his role in director Brian De Palma's schlocky 1974 pop opus Phantom of the Paradise, in which he plays a Faustian ghoul who trades his soul in order to become rock'n'roll's preeminent impresario. The movie is ridiculous, funny, entertaining, and endlessly referential-- just like Daft Punk...

...For inspiration, Bangalter gave Williams a book of stories about people who had died, came back to life, and remembered parts of past lives. And Williams' lyrics are about an awakening: "I remember touch," he croons, longingly. "As somebody who has been pronounced dead and came back, I could connect to this idea in the song," says Williams, who's now 23 years sober and the subject of the quietly triumphant recent documentary Still Alive. Meanwhile, the song warps and bends, floating through genres, epochs, and emotions with a sense of hallucinatory wonder, recalling nothing less than the Beatles' "A Day in the Life". "It's like the core of the record," says de Homem-Christo, "and the memories of the other tracks are revolving around it."

As Bangalter and de Homem-Christo talk about "Touch", there's still a sense of astonishment in their voices. "It was the most complicated thing we've ever done," says Bangalter. "And it became so exciting because it didn't feel like we took the easy route. With this record, we had the luxury to do things that so many people cannot do, but it doesn't mean that with luxury comes comfort." It's this high-stakes, high-wire mindset that keeps these guys in an enviable position within the collective imagination, no matter how long they take between magic tricks. Because if Daft Punk are still able to amaze themselves, there's still some hope for the rest of us.

VIDEO & PIC - DE PALMA ARRIVES AT NICE AIRPORTON HIS WAY TO CANNES FOR THE FILM FESTIVAL

The picture above was posted today at Nice Matin, along with the video below, showing Brian De Palma and others (including Sacha Baron Cohen and Sofia Coppola) arriving at the airport in Nice, stopping to sign autographs on their way to the Cannes Film Festival.

'DRESSED TO KILL' EXPANDED SOUNDTRACK TUESDAYINTRADA RELEASE AVAILABLE "WHILE QUANTITIES & INTEREST REMAIN"The rumors were true-- tonight, Intrada announced that its new release for Tuesday is an expanded, remastered edition of Pino Donaggio's soundtrack for Brian De Palma's Dressed To Kill. This edition features many cues never before released in pure audio format. It sells for $19.99. Here is the description from the website:

SWAN ARCHIVES GETS BRIGHT LIGHTS TREATMENTROGER LEATHERWOOD EXAMINES WEBSITE'S COLLECTION OF 'PHANTOM' MATERIALSAt Bright Lights Film Journal, Roger Leatherwood has written a fascinating article about Ari Kahan's The Swan Archives, and its incredible collection of marketing and other materials related to Brian De Palma's Phantom Of The Paradise.

Leatherwood, author of the book Mondo Cine: The World of Film Exhibition and Archiving in Revolution, shows a particular interest in how Kahan has made his personal collection public, and how the internet has made it possible to digitally present these personally-owned artifacts to the world at large. In the process, notes Leatherwood, the site produces an historical record of a particular cultural time period. "Kahan revives leftover and obscure material," states Leatherwood, "and enables us to relive the time and context surrounding the film's release, recasting advertising messages and other devalued cultural memories as historical and archival evidence of its cultural positioning at the time of release and of how it was received." Read the full article at the link above-- it will make you want to delve into the archives again right after you're done.

DE PALMA ATTENDED 'FRANCES HA' SCREENINGNOAH BAUMBACH'S LATEST THIS PAST THURSDAY AT MUSEUM OF MODERN ARTAccording to the Huffington Post's Regina Weinreich, Brian De Palma was in attendance this past Thursday for a special screening of his friend Noah Baumbach's latest film, Frances Ha, which was written with Greta Gerwig, who stars in the film. The screening took place at New York's Museum of Modern Art. Others at the screening included Ben Stiller (a regular collaborator of Baumbach's), Mike Nichols, Diane Sawyer, Ann Roth, David Chase, and Sting (whose daughter, Mickey Sumner, plays Gerwig's best friend in the film). Baumbach and Gerwig have been doing a lot of print promotion for the film, with a big interview story in the April 29 issue of The New Yorker, as well as a New York Times article, and another profile in the May 17 issue of Entertainment Weekly.

SPIELBERG HEADING CANNES JURY THIS MONTHSAYS HE HASN'T BEEN ON A JURY SINCE AVORIAZ, WHEN PRIZE WENT TO 'CARRIE'Steven Spielberg will head the jury at the Cannes Film Festival this month. An AFP article translates things Spielberg said in a pre-Cannes interview with the French arts magazine Telerama. Spielberg tells the magazine that he will be a "democratic" jury chairman. "But give me a bit of time," Spielberg is quoted in the AFP translation. "I haven't been on a jury since the Avoriaz festival in 1986, when we gave the prize to Carrie, by Brian De Palma. I'm a little rusty."

Something seems lost in translation there, however, as the festival Spielberg is talking about was in 1977, when he was jury president at the Avoriaz Fantasy Film Festival. De Palma's Carrie was given the Grand Prize, and Sissy Spacek received a Special Mention for her role as the title character. A Special Jury Prize was given to Larry Cohen's God Told Me To. And if that seems like a dream of a festival right there, check this out: at the 1975 Avoriaz fest, Roman Polanski was the jury president, and the Grand Prize went to De Palma's Phantom Of The Paradise, while the Special Jury Prize was shared by Cohen's It's Alive and Saul Bass' Phase IV.

As for Cannes this year, Spielberg told Telerama, "I believe that, before they are shown, all films are equal. Whether they are small or big, they are a sum of the personal visions and collaborative efforts. Each time the filmmaker's intentions are the same, whether it is Christopher Nolan or Michael Haneke: to express what he has inside."

Spielberg left for the festival about a month ago from Ft. Lauderdale, sailing on his 282-foot yacht, named the Seven Seas, which is, according to the New York Post, equipped with "a computer-controlled anti-seasickness system under the hull." Spielberg plans to sail the world with his wife and some of their kids following the Cannes fest. Initial rumors as Spielberg left were that he would host screenings of some of the Cannes films for jurors on the yacht, but those rumors have since been denied. But the yacht does have a 3D movie theater. And, according to Roger Friedman, the yacht also has a poolside movie screen. "It boasts luxury amenities for 12 guests," states Friedman, "with a crew of 26. There is a large master stateroom with a study and private deck, a helipad, indoor cinema and an infinity pool with a 15-foot glass wall that converts to a movie screen so the director and his guests can take in a film while swimming.”